Remember wine spritzers? No, I’m not asking if you remember them fondly, because most of us don’t. They were rarely delicious and seemed geared toward people who sorta-kinda-but-not-really wanted to get into wine, or at least latch onto the cachet then attached to it.

These “cocktails” were as likely to induce a headache as a gurgle of delight, and the reason  was simple: The wine usually was plonk, or close to it. Since then, not only have we learned that there’s no substitute for good ingredients — and no compensating for bad ones — in any food or beverage, but there have been extraordinary improvements in grape-growing and winemaking.

Still, it’s not time to hail the return of the wine spritzer per se. Instead, let’s celebrate the wines that themselves are like spritzers. The increasingly popular vinho verdes from Portugal, with their low alcohol levels and touch of effervescence, are better wine spritzers than most anything that was concocted in the 1970s or ’80s. Ditto some of the slightly fizzy white wines from the Loire and other parts of France (such as a Chateau Lamothe de Haux white Bordeaux we enjoyed over the weekend).

Recently, I came across another swell sipper in this vein. Nick Nadeau, proprietor of one of my favorite wine stores, 1st Grand in St. Paul, mentioned that a lot of customers were enjoying an Argentinian white wine called New Age, served on the rocks with a bit of fresh lime juice.

As usual, Nick was right. This is a delightful, sensuous summer beverage — the lime is essential, btw — that goes down almost too easy. The alcohol, blessedly, is 9.5 percent.

A 50-50 blend of sauvignon blanc and malvasia, New Age is a swell beverage for summer entertaining. Serve it “blind,” and it might just evoke some hilarious or misbegotten (or both) memories of those spritzers of yore.  

                            ****

Another of my favorite local wine people, Annette Peters, will be in her element big-time at an upcoming dinner that I’m extremely bummed to be missing. Peters, the import director at World Class Wines, will be treating diners to wines from some of her favorite little-known family vineyards in France (capped by an Oremus Tokai w/ dessert; yum). The five-course dinner at Spasso in Minnetonka begins at 6:30 p.m. on Aug 5 and costs $70, which includes tax and gratuity; call 952-224-9555.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 7:59 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.